"The Road to Jericho Leads Through Worcester" by Rev. Thomas Schade

Tue Mar 11 14:11:44 EDT 2008

M I N I S T E R’ S   M E M O

“The Road to Jericho Leads Through Worcester”

While most of us know the story told by Jesus about the Good Samaritan, not
everyone remembers that the setting of that story is the road to Jericho, a
mountainous and deserted track to Jericho, a city near Jerusalem. It was on
that road that the traveler was set upon by robbers and it was on that road
that the only one to help him was a member of a persecuted minority, the
Samaritans.

So the “Jericho Road” has entered our lexicon as the name for that place
when you are called upon to respond to another person in need. The Jericho
Road is a place where choices happen. Do I set aside my schedule, and my
fear, and my autonomy to help a stranger who needs my help?

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. repeatedly referred to his work, especially
in the latter days of life when he had turned his attention to issues of
poverty, as working on Jericho Road.

Our congregation is in the process now of deciding whether we can commit to
a project called “Jericho Road Project.” It is an important decision and one
that needs your attention.

The Jericho Road Project is an organization that matches volunteers with
professional skills with non-profit agencies that serve people in need for
specific projects.

For example, a volunteer with professional website development skills would
be matched up with a non-profit agency that needs a web-page. Or a lawyer
might provide some legal advice for an agency facing a legal issue. Someone
with Human Relations experience might help a non-profit write their employee
manual. It’s a simple idea

.

The Jericho Road Project started in the First Parish of Concord,
Massachusetts. It recruited volunteers from the Concord church and community
to serve non-profit organizations in nearby, and economically struggling,
Lowell. After a few years of success, they have created a similar project,
linking the Unitarian Universalist Church in North Andover with nearby
Lawrence.

They have approached our congregation to see if we were interested in
creating a Worcester Jericho Road Project. We have invited First Baptist
Church of Worcester to consider working with us as a joint project.

The plan would be that Jericho Road organization in Concord would provide
two years of funding for an executive director of a Worcester organization.
We would create an advisory committee to guide the project and provide
office space and computer and phone connections for the organization. In two
years, Worcester Jericho Road would incorporate itself as a an independent
organization and seek its own funding. The organization gets most of its
funding through foundations and grants.

The reports from the First Parish in Concord have been that the Jericho Road
Project in Concord is well-run, well-organized and very effective. A member
of our congregation who is intimately involved with a Lowell organization
which has been helped by a Jericho Road volunteer reports that the
experience was very successful.

A group of people in our congregation have been working to explore the issue
of our participation in starting Jericho Road Worcester. It is an impressive
group including people who are closely connected to many community
organizations and non-profit agencies in Worcester. Mary Frandsen has taken
the lead in this effort. That group will seeking the approval of the
Prudential Committee and the Lay Leadership Council. If you have questions
or comments about this project, contact Mary Frandsen, the chair of the
Jericho Road Project group, or your moderator, Liz Gustavson, or the chair
of the Lay Leadership Council, Fran Nase, through the church office.

Once these initial approvals have been given, they will conduct a skill
survey of the people in the congregation and recruit members of an advisory
committee.

Rev. Merritt and I have supported this project so far, but, of course, our
support means little if this project does not capture the imagination of a
significant portion of the congregation. I support it because:

1. It asks us to contribute our best and most developed skills and talents.
I shoveled dirt into a wheelbarrow and hauled it across a baseball field in
New Orleans. It was good work, needed work, and it felt good to put my back
into honest labor. I gained new respect for the people who do that every
day. Yet, I don’t think that it was the best that I had to offer.

2. The program seems to understand what all the experts now say about
volunteer work: people need short-term, well-defined projects to which they
can commit.

3. The program is well-managed and well-organized and very down to earth and
concrete. There are too many demands on everyone’s time to commit to fuzzy,
vague, super-idealistic, and sloppy organizations.

A few years back, a group of congregants, meeting as a “social justice
network” set forth a vision for First Unitarian that “Someday, everyone will
know that at First Unitarian Church of Worcester they will be able to find a
way to put their desires for a better world into action.” The Jericho Road
Project is one way to make that vision a reality.

What can you do to help? A statement indicating general support for Jericho
Road Worcester is being circulated; sign it. Perhaps you would like to wear
a nametag showing your support. And when it comes time for the
congregational skill survey: participate in it.

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